


One Last Dance

by JustYourAveragePerson



Category: Unus Annus - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Annus is too but refuses to admit it (mostly), Crying, Dancing, I Tried, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I came up with this because of one piece of art in the final livestream, Mark and Ethan are mentioned but don't really show up, Memento mori, Near Death Experiences, Other, Panic Attacks, Queerplatonic Relationships, Swearing, Unus Annus, Unus and Annus are kind of weird digital lifeforms, Unus and Annus are their own entities, Unus is anxious, You're Welcome, have fun, i changed my idea to have a happy ending, i dont know guys, i dont know what else to tag, i tried to write it so Unus and Annus can be read as either friends or in love, im tired and just want to shove this mess out there, it made sense at the time, themes of death, we were here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27695017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustYourAveragePerson/pseuds/JustYourAveragePerson
Summary: Unus and Annus face down their last minutes with some fond memories.
Relationships: Mark Fischbach & Ethan Nestor, Unus & Annus, Unus/Annus
Comments: 4
Kudos: 44





	One Last Dance

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [bones bared to the sun](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27547237) by [demonicxiconic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonicxiconic/pseuds/demonicxiconic). 



One year seems like such a long time when you have most of it left. 

Unus had learned to ignore the constant ticking in his head, just glancing at the clock occasionally to keep track of the time. If he looked too much he'd become obsessed, so he chose not to, focusing more on the time they did have. 

But when the count fell below one hundred days, it felt like the digits burned into their void-esque home were staring down at him, demanding his attention. Demanding to be acknowledged, feared, and despaired of. Every unexpected and half-forgotten click made the hum of electricity inside his chest disrupt into static and chaos for just a moment, just long enough to shock the senses and impress it upon him once again.

_You’re going to die. You are going to flicker out and disappear. Only a few months left until it happens._

Annus managed to distract him most times, or placate him long enough to move on from it.

“You know it has to end eventually. We know when it does, so why worry? We still have time. So much time.” 

And it had worked, for a time. But now there was hardly any time left.

Unus stared up at the clock, what little breath he remembered to take hissing in and out of clenched teeth. Twelve hours left. Twelve short, measly hours left to say goodbye.

He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t hoped, somewhere in the depths of his being, that maybe the fans would’ve pulled it off. That the clock would stop, they’d be saved, there would not be an end for now but... at least a delay. It was too soon, dammit!

Unus screamed and slammed both fists against the space before him; cracks ran up to the white numbers only to fade immediately. His actions altered nothing, of course, but the fear and sadness and burning, devouring anger were more than his fragile components could handle. Compounding the flood of artificial emotion was the immediate dismissal of his actions, this wretched place that kept them trapped, helpless to fate. The rage began to fade and give way to hopelessness; Unus’s shoulders slumped and his head fell, teeth sinking into a lip indented from constant biting. He didn’t notice Annus’s presence until his voice appeared in the darkness.

“Unus, you know-”

“It’s not fair!” He exploded, springing to life once more, and turning rather harshly to face his other. “It’s like we mean nothing to them- after this whole year, after everyone begging to let us live, they’re still going to end it! _They created us to die, Annus, how are you okay with this?!_ ”

“We don’t have any other choice…” Even to Annus, it seemed, the answer was weak. “What can we even do, now?”

Unus wavered; he crumpled a little. “I… I thought they’d care more. But they’re happy. They’re happy to delete us and move on.” 

Mark and Ethan had fathered them knowing to the second how long they’d live, after all, and no promises of how much the experience had been worth could take away the pain of being faced with inevitable death, by their own creators no less. And maybe at first, the reality hadn’t hit him, or he hadn’t cared. But Unus cared now. He wanted to live. He wanted to escape this prison of ticking clocks and endlessly flowing sands that buried him in silence. He wanted to break free and reign fury down on the men who had created them only to laugh in their face and mock his and Annus’s impending doom, to make them feel the pain and fear of being torn apart by the ones who should treasure your existence most. He wanted more than he’d ever had and would never get to have, and it was terrible but a part of him still saw the beauty. To see it hurt all the more.

Starlight tears fell down his face to the beat of his frantic breath, and Annus was quick to pull him close, to offer a steady spot amidst the upheaval. Folded in his arms Unus could almost taste a glimmer of peace, and it both soothed and enraged him. He wanted to hold tight to Annus until the final second chimed but he wanted to beat him away and claw his way out of this place. He wanted everything and nothing and only the velvet tones of the other’s words pulled him from the whirlpool in his head.

“It’s going to be okay. I’m still here, see?”

Unus felt cool fingers smooth his hair and his pulse slowed, just a little.

“Take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay.”

A shudder ran through Unus and he sank a little further into Annus’s embrace, fingers grasping weakly at the silken jacket but finding very little purchase. 

“...I’m scared too.” Annus spoke so quietly he could hardly be heard, but Unus heard him. It made all the difference to know he wasn’t alone in the fear.

“You remember- remember when Mark jumped into the ocean?” Unus’s voice cracked as he finally offered a few words up, hoping that he could believe the lie sliding off his tongue. “Maybe it’ll be like that… it’s terrifying, but maybe it’ll end up fine…?” 

“That’s the spirit,” Annus jokes, but it’s a solemn joke, and the little lightness it provides is already dwindling. “Keep talking, though. What was your favorite moment of the year? Don’t think, just talk.”

So they talked. Memories, mementos, events in no order at all but the way they felt and emerged into their consciousness. 

They talked and talked and talked. It felt like only minutes, just little granules of time that passed until suddenly there were only fifteen minutes left. 

The shock tore them apart, Annus still sat on the floor looking like a deer in headlights while Unus scrambled to his feet and began pacing.

“ _Fuck_ , where did the time go, fuck fuck fuck we’re going to die--” Unus rambled to himself, biting his nails and lip intermittently, only aware he had hurt himself when he tasted something cold and metallic. 

Annus roused himself and strode over to Unus, catching him and grasping the other man by the shoulders. 

“Unus--” 

His eyes burned, swimming with tears as he waited for the other to say something. Anything. The galaxies always just barely visible in his other’s eyes seemed to have faded, leaving blank voids in their place. It suddenly struck him that Annus was trembling almost imperceptibly, his grip was too tight, his lips moving without sound. 

“I’m sorry,” he began simply, and his touch lightened. “...I understand why you were so frightened, now.” 

He took another moment to compose himself before continuing.

“I am… so glad to have spent this past year with you. There may be some logic to me saying that without you I could not exist, but… you’re my friend. Thank you for being here.”

“Thank _you_ for putting up with me,” Unus forced out, words broken up a soft sound somewhere between a laugh and a cry. “I don’t know how else we would’ve made it through the year.”

There was so much more to say but in a way it felt like they’d said it all already. Had they been, without realizing it, saying goodbye this whole time? With every passing day, and now each hour, looking back with fondness, sharing one last laugh… this was really just the final parting.

They knew what they wanted each other to know, anyways.

“So what do we do now?” Unus wiped his face, trying to hide the quiver still in his voice. Annus thought for a moment, then the slightest of smiles poked through. 

“One last dance?” He offered. “Do you even remember how it goes?” 

Unus gave a watery laugh and gently separated himself. It took a bit of fumbling but eventually it came back to them, a half forgotten pattern they timed to the ticking of the clock. It was quiet and there was a kind of tragic beauty in it. Their mechanical hearts, the sound of the clock, the tapping of their shoes and the ragged breaths chased with giggles and occasional tears. Something soft and intimate and fleeting, soon to be gone, its sole witnesses with it.

The minutes slowly slipped away, and with them their dance slowed. Steps became fewer and farther between, the brief joy they’d managed to capture evaporating as the count hit thirty seconds.

Unus pulled Annus into himself, wrapping both arms tightly about him and burying his face in the other’s shoulder. Annus, his safety and strength, the light to his dark… he wanted him to be the last thing he ever experienced. The smaller man felt his other’s embrace encase him, his breath fanning softly against his ear, and despite the terror felt a reassurance. 

He was not alone.

When they spoke, it was in unison, holding each other as they faced their deaths.

“See you on the other side.”

. . .

. .

.

Unus had expected pain, or a bright flash. Something to mark the end before it all dissolved to nothing.

But…

The thirty seconds had passed.

Nothing had happened.

Unus slowly, so very slowly cracked open an eye. He saw the cracks of their void threatening to swallow them, saw the edge of Annus’s sleeve from where his arm circled the smaller man’s body. 

And yet the cracks began to close. There was a crackling, and then silence. Unus and Annus looked at each other, breath stilled in their chests, not daring to look anywhere but the other. 

“No ticking…?”

“No ticking.”

“I…” Unus swallowed against a dry throat, pulling in the first breath he’d had since what he thought would be their last embrace. “I can’t look.”

“Do it with me?”

He nodded. Annus mouthed a countdown and together they turned their heads to where the burning digits of the clock hung suspended.

00:00:00:00.

They looked back to each other, expressions mirrored in wide-eyed silence. 

Everything was whole. There were no cracks trying to swallow them, no ticking clock, no feeling of dread.

They were free.

Unus felt the first genuine smile he’d had in quite a long time nearly split his face in two, and glittering tears dripped down his face as he threw himself into Annus’s waiting arms. Annus was crying too and they both laughed, the raucous laughter of men spared the executioner, of men set free at last.

Maybe this peace would only last a moment. Maybe it would last a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a year. Maybe it would last forever. 

But no matter how long it lasted, they had more time. 

How could they ask for anything more? 


End file.
